Before it became a hot-button topic in the NFL and across the country, Mike Sullivan told the Giants players what the national anthem meant to him.
It was in a meeting in training camp, when Colin Kaepernick was a backup quarterback and not a social lightning rod. Sullivan, a former Army Ranger and graduate of West Point, along with his friend Ret. Lt. Col. Greg Gadson, who has been part of the Giants’ family for nearly a decade, told the players why he believed they should stand at attention for the pregame playing of the song.
“When I was fortunate enough to address the team early on it was with the focus of as the New York Giants, as the flagship organization of the NFL, we’re going to do things with class,” Sullivan said on Thursday.